A Trip to the Theatre

[Robbie]

Went to see Back To The Future The Musical at Manchester Opera House this week. As a musical it's fairly middling, but as a show it's great fun with a lot to like. It's funny, well-staged, and they recreate the film very well. The Delorean sequences are very well done, and it's very immersive. The leads are brilliant as Marty and Marty's dad while Roger Bart gets to riff a bit as Doc Brown, including having his own totally-unrelated song. I think the songwriting probably needs another pass, but as a night out it's very entertaining.

 

[peep]

I've been back to the theatre!

On Monday I saw The Prince of Egypt based off the 90s Dreamworks film. I've never seen the film so have no childhood connection with it. The production is clearly top tier but I was so bored through the majority of this show. When they teased and then fully perform "When you believe" (the big hit, I certainly remember the pop version from the radio etc) you could sense everyone go "oh this song!", some even resorted to childish laughter (although that was probably just the idiots in front of me). Overall I was disappointed but happy to be back at the theatre!

I was so happy to be back at the theatre that last night I spontaneously popped into my local theatre to see Heathers: The musical. Yet another film updated for the stage that I've never seen. I had such a great time, this show is really good fun which seems bizarre considering the dark subject matter. It was really funny, the songs weren't memorable but either super energetic or a really powerful ballad. The cast seemed to mostly be recent drama school graduates and they absolutely smashed it.

^ I'm also still unsure if I want to see BTTF. I'm hearing great things about the staging but I dunno. Maybe if I get a notification for a sale I'll grab a ticket.

 

[peep]

I caved and got rush tickets for Back to the Future: The Musical. I really enjoyed it, the staging and effects are fantastic. The sequences with the Delorean are very effective. Most of the music wasn't much to write about, I found the first number really jarring, like it was forced in but once he goes back in time I felt like it got better and it felt comfortable with being a musical. Best musical number and staging by far was the high school chase scene, so much chaotic energy on that stage with so many props and actors moving around, loved it. Unfortunately I think I got the understudy for Marty and Doc but they were pretty great, I felt like Marty had the mannerisms from the film down. Not sure I liked Doc Brown's musical numbers, one felt very out of place and forced and the other was ok but being a ballad I was struggling to pay attention. Overall, like @Robbie said, very entertaining night out.


As an early Christmas present I took my sister to see her first opera at my favourite venue in London, the Coliseum. The Opera was H.M.S. Pinafore by Gilbert and Sullivan. I've seen two of their other operas but it was with school 15+ years ago so my memory of them is a little hazy. I liked it, they've thrown in a lot of updates to modernise some of the humour to the point it almost felt like a Mischief Theatre production called The Opera Goes Wrong. I didn't know before I booked that Les Dennis was in the cast, that was slightly surreal to see him in an opera (the role is traditionally played by a comedian apparently*). It's incredible how much they're able to project their vocals, some are better at it than others BUT the English National Opera have made Opera so accessible, there's a monitor above the stage with subtitles! Genius and super helpful, all shows should get these. My Sister realised opera isn't for her which is fair enough, it is a very marmite style of show but the overall spectacle and the humour made it worth while.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1467957911162867722

A clip of one of the fun numbers with the incredible stage:

And a homage from the Simpsons, obviously:

*Shame they couldn't find one

 

[nadroJ]

^I was going to say, I saw HMS Pinafore advertised in London the other day and all I could think of was Sideshow Bob

 

[Nitefly]

I absolutely love a good warboat comic opera (‘old warboat stories’ being one of my favourite genres).

You can just imagine them writing it:

“…. man, you know what this warboat story needs?”
“…. What?”
“Some ****ing songs!!!”
“YES!!!”

 

[Gavin]

Gilbert and Sullivan are operetta (basically diet opera - more light-hearted and not as heavy), and are far more accessible than full opera. The subtitles thing has been standard for years considering most opera is sung in Italian or German. It's definitely a good idea to do with English as well though since the singing style makes it difficult to follow.

I haven't been to the theatre for a couple of months, but the last one was, I think, Madame Butterfly. I've seen it before, but this time it was put on by the company here that gets public funding, meaning bigger budget and more impressive productions. It was decent and looked good enough to distract from some of the tedium.

 

[FarleyFlavors]

I don't go to the theatre much but last week I caught the new production of Cabaret with Eddie Redmayne and Jessie Buckley. I'm a huge fan of the film version and having recently seen Buckley playing a country and western singer in Wild Rose, I knew that she was capable of belting them out.

It's an impressive production. The entire theatre has been gutted and transformed into a 1930s German nightclub, with a revolving circular wooden stage in the centre of the stalls.

Buckley was as impressive as expected. Redmayne however was very bland as the EmCee. A woman sat next to me commented that she'd seen Alan Cumming in the part a few years ago and that he was "much more menacing".

Bit of a surprise to discover that the stage version has an entire subplot concerning Sally Bowles' landlady's relationship with a Jewish tenant which was expunged from the film version, complete with four entire songs.

A free bottle of German beer on entry was a nice touch. But I think I'll stick with the film in future.

 

[peep]

Gilbert and Sullivan are operetta (basically diet opera - more light-hearted and not as heavy), and are far more accessible than full opera. The subtitles thing has been standard for years considering most opera is sung in Italian or German. It's definitely a good idea to do with English as well though since the singing style makes it difficult to follow.

Interestingly I went back and read up about the ENO and apparently they translate all of their productions into English. Good to know subtitles are quite a standard thing. I'm always a little wary of proper opera, maybe one day I'll see something a bit more full on.

 

[Gavin]

Interestingly I went back and read up about the ENO and apparently they translate all of their productions into English. Good to know subtitles are quite a standard thing. I'm always a little wary of proper opera, maybe one day I'll see something a bit more full on.

Yeah, it can be a bit much. Operetta is kind of a bridge between opera and musicals. It's "easier" in that there are clear songs/melodies whereas opera can be very meandering. Most of them have one or two famous, recognisable bits of music, but you're not exactly going to be humming along for 99% of it.

A good intro is Carmen. It's always on somewhere and is a good "in" since it has loads of recognisable tunes.